The Face Stealer Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Connect

  Dedication

  The Tombs Legacy

  1984

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

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  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  35

  36

  37

  38

  39

  40

  41

  42

  43

  44

  45

  46

  47

  48

  49

  50

  51

  52

  Want to know what happens next?

  About the author

  The Face Stealer

  Robert Scott-Norton

  The Face Stealer

  Published by Robert Scott-Norton

  Copyright © 2013 Robert Scott-Norton

  Kindle Edition, Licence Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Connect with me online:

  Rob's blog at: http://www.robertscottnorton.com/

  Twitter: @robscottnorton

  Book cover design:

  Cover by Alexander von Ness - http://www.nessgraphica.com

  For Mandy

  You gave me love, kids, and brews.

  The Tombs Legacy

  Only the damned leave the Tombs…

  The Tombs Legacy is a universe of connected fiction spanning decades and genres. I expect one day that it will consume my every waking thought...but right now I still have some control.

  Sign up to discover more about The Tombs Legacy and be first to find out when new stories are available.

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  http://www.robertscottnorton.com/p/damned.html

  1984

  It felt like the end. Most of his friends were dead in the Tombs, drowned by the ice-cold water of the lake. The survivors had his quick reactions to thank, yet despite doing everything he could, Thadeus knew he was damned.

  “Why’s it taking so long? We’re going to lose her,” he shouted to the three divers standing behind him on the powerboat. The men were still shaken and it was taking longer than it should to equip themselves in their scuba gear. Thadeus had to keep the pressure up though, or his damnation would be for nothing.

  Sharman had the most experience of the three divers and was checking Carey’s tank, trying to calm his colleague as he worked. Marlow adjusted his own straps and inserted his regulator’s mouthpiece as he stared into the black depths over the gunwale. Sharman turned to give Carey access to his tank and in short order, the men were ready. Each grabbed an assault rifle and clipped them to straps hooked over their shoulders.

  “We’re ready,” Sharman said before putting his regulator in.

  Thadeus cut the motor and waited for the divers to enter the water; each in turn stepping over the gunwale at the back of the boat and entering feet first. Thadeus left the wheel and quickly passed them large underwater torches, which they switched on before diving under the surface. Thadeus traced the pattern of their lights as they swam away from him.

  Thadeus steered around the divers’ lights in a wide circle, using his own torch to scan the lake surface away from the divers. They were too late. He knew it in his heart that the evacuation from the ruined Tombs had taken too long and their target was now out in the open. This search, already limited and basic to the point of being amateurish, felt a colossal waste of time.

  The radio clipped to his lapel beeped, and a woman’s voice came out of the speaker. “Any sign yet Dominic?”

  “Negative.”

  “She can’t have escaped,” Linwood said. Thadeus had never heard her so unsure.

  “It already has escaped,” Thadeus snapped. “All we can do is hope to get lucky.” He inhaled the chilling breeze and closed his eyes for a moment. “Did you get the prototype?”

  “The lab was half-flooded. The doors almost didn’t work.”

  “But you got it?”

  “Yes. I’m on my way back.”

  “Hurry. We’ve no chance without it.”

  “I’m coming as fast as I can.” The radio died.

  Thadeus scanned the promenade, expecting to see the flashing blue lights of police cars, but he couldn’t see any yet. Maybe they still had enough time to sort this mess out.

  The powerboat bounced hard and jolted Thadeus from his thoughts. The water of the lake had become rough and Thadeus gripped the wheel to keep his course steady. He throttled back to a crawl, stepped back from the wheel, and peered over the side. The fine hairs on the back of his neck stood to attention.

  “Sharman, get back to the boat!” He shouted across the lake’s surface, but they were still underwater and stood no chance of hearing him. He hurried back to the wheel and turned it sharply towards the centre of the search circle, shining his torch into the depths. Maybe they’d notice the change in his pattern.

  Thadeus pulled his weapon from his leather jacket, and thumbed the safety off. The boat rocked more violently now, and it took some effort to stay grounded against the movement. Water splashed onto the deck and spray hit Thadeus in the face. He’d been right to wait for it. The others said it would be futile, but they didn’t have the experience with it; they hadn’t spoken to it and persuaded it to speak in return. They said it would run; Thadeus knew they were the ones who should be running.

  Something broke the surface.

  The rocking stopped and the waves calmed.

  Thadeus shone his torch and picked out the girl in the water. A young girl, no older than ten, blinking against the light in her face. Thadeus killed the engine and raised his weapon.

  “Don’t move Irulal. Stay right there until my men reach you,” he shouted across the water.

  As if on cue, three more shapes broke the surface. The divers kept their distance, but all held their underwater assault rifles locked on the girl.

  “I can’t stay,” she said, her young voice hard to hear above the sounds of the water lapping against the boat.

  “I’m not giving you a choice. You’re coming back with us.”

  “They’ll be worried about me.”

  “Let them worry. You’ve killed a lot of people tonight—my friends.” Thadeus steadied himself against the back of the driver’s chair.

  “I won’t stay.”

  “Shut up and get into the boat. We’re done talking.”

  Irulal just smiled.

  Thadeus glanced at the men in the water. He toyed with the idea of ordering his men to shoot.

  “Come back with me,” he said. “It will be better this time.”

  “You’re a terrible liar,” she replied. And then, with an incredible turn of speed, she swam the fifteen feet to the scub
a divers and got behind one of them. With an arm tight against his neck, she ripped his mask off and pulled out his regulator. Marlow struggled to keep his head above the water. He gasped at the water splashing into his face, and blinked with Thadeus’s torch beam shining straight at him.

  “Let him go,” Thadeus commanded.

  Irulal shook her head. “Let me go.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “Shame.”

  Marlow sensing perhaps that he needed to break the stalemate, tried to pull away, but the girl’s grip was too tight. He bobbed under the surface trying to take her down with him, trying to shake her off. He swung his rifle backwards into Irulal’s face, but she reached for the gun before it struck and twisted it out of his grip.

  Despite no possibility of a clean shot, Thadeus fired. The shot missed the girl by inches and the struggling pair continued to twist in the water, both oblivious to the noise of the weapon.

  “I’m not warning you again!” Thadeus shouted.

  She smirked and a cold sensation dropped in Thadeus’s stomach.

  Irulal took Marlow’s head in her hands and with a sickening crunch twisted his head violently to the side. When she let go, his lifeless form bobbed in the water, his head moving awkwardly against the water.

  Sharman raised his rifle and without shouting any warning, fired a steady stream of bullets at her head. Some of the bullets went wide but Thadeus saw the impact of at least some of the bullets hitting their target, throwing Irulal backwards. As Thadeus had known though, it wasn’t nearly enough to stop her, or even slow her down for more than a few seconds.

  “Bullets, really?” She said with amusement. When she dove, Thadeus tracked her shape under the water with his torch but she swam out of range in a couple of seconds and he lost her.

  The radio spluttered into life. “Thadeus, are you reading me? I’m on the upper level.”

  “Hurry, she found us, and she’s pissed.”

  “Understood.”

  “She’s heading for the boat yard.”

  “I’ll meet you there.”

  “Be careful. She’s just killed Marlow.”

  Sharman had swum over to Marlow’s floating body and tried to manoeuvre him towards the boat. Thadeus watched the struggle as he moved the boat closer. Once alongside, he helped drag Marlow’s body out of the water and laid him out along the deck. His broken neck moved unnaturally and Thadeus had a worrying sensation of sick at the back of his throat. He turned to help Carey and Sharman get out of the water. They were shaking hard but quickly freed themselves from the cumbersome scuba gear. Thadeus pulled on the throttle and aimed for the jetty. The boat crossed the lake in less than a minute but even as the boat’s hull crunched against the concrete mooring, he knew they weren’t going to catch up with her.

  Thadeus leapt the gap to dry land and pulled his gun, ready to fire; however, the attack didn’t come. Despite Irulal having little reason to still be in the area, he couldn’t shake the idea that she was somewhere close, watching them. The gun in his hand felt a wasted effort though; Sharman had proved that by firing most of a cartridge worth of bullets at her and it hadn’t slowed her down. Along the edge of the lake he saw a figure speeding towards him, her torchlight bouncing like an agitated firefly. Linwood would be here in less than a minute, but the weapon was only useful if he could get Irulal close enough to use it. Weighing up his options, Thadeus blew out a deep breath and headed away from the jetty towards the boatyard.

  “Don’t be an idiot,” Sharman said. “Wait for us at least.” But he was still helping Carey struggle out of his harness.

  “I can’t let her get away. Every second counts,” he said, shaking his head. “Bring Linwood when she gets here. Be ready to use the weapon. We’ll only have one chance with this.” Thadeus ran from the jetty, his feet crunching on the loose gravel. He passed sailing boats, old and new, some on their side seemingly abandoned, but most were elevated in raised stands for access to the hulls. The place was full of shadows. His heart thudded in his chest and he took several deep, concentrated breaths in an attempt to calm down and stay focused.

  And then he heard something fall, straight ahead beyond the next row of boats.

  Thadeus ran through the space between the boats and within seconds he reached the chain link fence that marked the edge of the boatyard. He ran along it, looking for the main gates onto the road, thinking that if she’d run, she’d take the easiest option out of the site.

  When he heard a yell, Thadeus paused, his heart in his mouth. It had been a man’s voice—a cry of surprise cut off early.

  “Sharman? Is that you? Are you OK?”

  No response.

  “Sharman?” he hissed into the gloom. Thadeus ran back the way he’d come almost careening into Carey coming from the opposite direction.

  “You heard that?” Thadeus said, keeping his voice low.

  Carey nodded, and the look on his face suggested he’d recognised the man’s voice as well.

  “Where’s Linwood?” Thadeus asked.

  “She was struggling getting the thing to work. Sharman thought you might need the help.”

  “You should have waited.”

  “We thought you were in trouble.”

  “And now we all are.”

  The scream had come from the next row of boats along. As he approached the boat at the end of the row, he slowed, his gun and torch held tightly before him. The gravel crunched underfoot; there was no chance of creeping up silently on anyone.

  He turned the corner, torch and gun pointed, seeking a target, but his torch beam instead found Sharman. It would have been hard to miss him, hanging three feet from the floor, his legs and arms dangling, and his head—the sharp barb of the boat’s anchor protruded through his eye.

  “She wants us dead. She could have run but she hasn’t,” Carey said softly.

  Bile rose in Thadeus’s throat and he fought the urge to be sick. Carey was right; they were all going to die. Irulal wasn’t scared of her pursuers; she’d led them into an ambush. And now she would pick them off, one by one.

  He heard running, then Linwood appeared.

  “Oh my god!” Linwood said, backing away from the scene: her torch never wavering from what was left of Sharman’s face.

  “It wants revenge,” Thadeus said. “We need to start getting clever or we’re not going to survive. Where’s the prototype?”

  Linwood shrugged off her backpack, and pulled out a strange-looking device. A silver tube with clear sections ribbed along the surface formed the barrel. The end bent to form a grip, with a trigger built into the handle.

  She offered it to Thadeus who took it carefully.

  “Did it get damaged?”

  Linwood shook her head. “I don’t see how it could have been. I had to pull it out of the vault in the lab. It looks fine.”

  He held the gun in his hand and a light flickered on the side of the barrel. It was armed.

  “Are you sure there’s no other way to contain her?” she asked.

  “No. She’s too strong. Much stronger than she’s been making out. She’s been playing us for fools.”

  “But Thadeus, we haven’t finished testing it yet. We don’t even know if it’s working, or how many shots you’ll get.”

  He looked up at Sharman again, then glanced over at Carey. “Get him down.”

  A metallic clang sounded close by. The group as one, looked in the direction it had come from.

  Thadeus gripped the weapon harder. “Stay here,” he commanded then he left them behind and hurried towards the noise. He ran past row upon row of boats, scanning to his left and right in his attempt to find the source of the sound. Just when he thought he had no hope, the noise rang out again. Fast running out of ground to cover, he decided to turn and rounded the hull of a great fisherman’s boat, rested on the ground in support blocks.

  He crashed into a couple of teenagers. They fell to the floor, looking up in horror at the man before them.

 
“What the hell are you doing here?” Thadeus hissed at the newcomers.

  “We’re on a—we heard shouting,” the nervous looking girl answered. “We were by the pier and...” Thadeus thought she looked about sixteen, blonde and pretty, too young to be out at this time of night. He wondered if her parents knew what she was up to.

  “Yeah,” the young man said, his face ashen. “Is that a gun?”

  “You need to get out of here, now. It’s not safe.”

  “We heard a scream,” the girl said.

  “There’s been an accident,” Thadeus said, then as an afterthought added, “but you could help.”

  “Um, how?” the girl replied.

  “Get to a phone box and call an ambulance. Wait up on the main road to help direct them in. Keep in the lights so they can see you. Can you do that?”

  The pair nodded and got to their feet, but before they could leave, Irulal stepped out of the shadows behind them, the teenagers oblivious to her presence.

  Thadeus brought the gun to bear on his target with swift reflexes sharpened with adrenaline. The girl’s eyes widened in horror and she clutched her boyfriend’s arm in terror. “Please don’t hurt us. We’ll go now,” she pleaded.

  “Move towards me, quickly.”

  But faced with a man holding a weapon, they did what anyone might do: they took a step back. The young man noticed Irulal first. He spun, surprised by the newcomer, then cautious he pulled his girlfriend close and took a step back towards Thadeus.

  “What’s going on?” he said.

  Blue lights spun on the access road behind them. Damn it, the police were too damn quick. He was running out of time. He heard car doors opening, and voices—multiple voices. The teenage girl’s eyes darted to the sounds behind Thadeus.

  “Help me,” Irulal said earnestly. “He wants to hurt me.”

  The boyfriend looked at Thadeus with cold, flat eyes.

  Thadeus shook his head. “Don’t listen to her,” he said.

  “She’s a kid,” the young man said.

  “You’ve got to help me. I’m scared.”

  “She’s dangerous.”

  “You’re the one with the gun,” the young man said.